Future climate change on alpine ecosystems

Alpine ecosystems are expexted to be disproportionately impacted by climate change under global warming and EECRG researchers are conducting experiments and analysing data from previously studied sites in an attempt to quantify these likely impacts.

We aim to contribute to an improved understanding of the effects of climate and climate change on alpine ecosystems. This we do through observational studies along temporal and spatial gradients (Re-Sample), manipulation experiments (ITEX), and by combining these approaches by carrying out experiments along natural environmental gradients (SeedClim).

The results from Finse show that alpine plant community diversity may decrease under climate warming, particularly if nutrient availability in the soil increases as a result of nitrogen deposition and/or increased mineralisation due to warmer soils. When nutrient availability rose in combination with higher temperature, grasses and some forbs dramatically increased in abundance at the cost of bryophytes, lichens, and low-stature alpine specialist forbs, resulting in decreased community diversity and a shift in species composition. Decreased species diversity and changes in community composition under experimental warming are in line with results from other ITEX experiments, although species specific responses may differ between sites. Individual species responses may lead to changes in species interactions, and results from Finse suggest that climate warming may increase the role of competition for alpine plant community dynamics.